Premier League fixtures today – your guide to Thursday’s games

The nebulous festive interval between Boxing Day and New 12 months’s Eve – Betwixtmas, the yr’s perineum, no matter you wish to name it – typically drifts by in a blur.

Luckily, the Premier League’s fixture pc has sprinkled a number of video games to function staging posts on this void.

There are solely two matches to your perusal on Thursday however they need to each be intriguing spectacles between sides within the high half of the desk.

Here is all the pieces it’s good to know in regards to the midweek providing.

In what’s going to absolutely be the final word kiss of loss of life, Brighton’s go to from Tottenham Hotspur guarantees objectives.

The Seagulls had scored in 32 consecutive Premier League matches earlier than travelling to Tottenham’s north London rivals Arsenal earlier this month. De Zerbi’s aspect duly discovered the online of their subsequent outing towards Crystal Palace. Spurs, in the meantime, boast the longest present scoring sequence in England’s high flight, bagging a minimum of one purpose in 30 video games on the spin.

Whereas there are many variations between Roberto De Zerbi and Ange Postecoglou – the Italian barely ever says mate – they each have unflinching religion of their respective taking part in rules.

There are some overlaps on the pitch as properly, with every staff intent on dominating possession by quick, intricate skeins of passes. Either side comfortably file the fewest proportion of lengthy balls (passes over 30 yards) within the division.

When reflecting on his relationship with David Moyes, the coach who signed him at Everton 20 years in the past, Mikel Arteta gushed: “It is greater than respect, I believe it is admiration. I beloved taking part in beneath him. I’d have gone by a brick wall for him when he was my supervisor.”

The pair do not talk as a lot anymore – “It is enterprise, you realize?” Moyes shrugged in manner of clarification – however the mutual respect is clear.

Moyes proved that the grasp may nonetheless get one over his outdated apprentice with a bullying 3-1 win for West Ham United over Arsenal within the Carabao Cup fourth spherical two months in the past.

Arsenal followers have jokingly began a fundraiser to pay West Ham extra money such is the perceived worth of Declan Rice. Nonetheless, the midfielder who moved north for £100m in the summertime got here on in that cup tie to chants of: “You need to’ve signed for an enormous membership.”

West Ham – whose followers are all the time eager to remind everybody how huge they’re – had been knocked out of the second-string cup competitors by Liverpool however warmed up for his or her journey to the Emirates with a deserved 2-0 victory over Manchester United.

READ THE LATEST PREMIER LEAGUE NEWS, RUMOURS & GOSSIP